KARACHI, Feb 21: Secretary General of the Sindh PPP Nafees Siddiqui on Tuesday said his party wanted the 2007 general elections to be held under the supervision of a consensus caretaker government and an independent and impartial election commission.

“At present, only anti-blasphemy protests are allowed to be held in the country while political parties are not being allowed to raise the genuine issues, like the military operation in Balochistan, restoration of real democracy and holding of free and fair general elections in 2007,” he told a news conference at the Karachi Press Club. MPA Rafique Engineer, Saeed Ghani and Waqar Mehdi were also present on the occasion.

He said that the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy was convening an All-Parties Conference (APC) on February 27 in Islamabad to discuss all such issues.

Mr Siddiqui, regarding the proposed caretaker set up, said that it should be formed for 90 days and none of its member should be eligible for contesting the election.

About the election commission, he said it should be fully independent, autonomous in its financial and administrative matters and should also comprise only neutral members, preferably from the HRCP or some reputed civilian organizations.

The PPP leader said that the chief election commissioner should be the last retiring chief justice of Pakistan and his appointment should be seamless and automatic, adding that an acting CEC should conduct no elections.

He said that a CEC should be appointed for a fixed term of five years and should not hold any other office after expiry of his term in office. The election commission should comprise five members, including the CEC, he said, adding that one member from each province should be drawn from every province to form the election commission and one of them must be a woman.

Nafees Siddiqui demanded holding of Senate elections on the basis of proportionate representation of each party in each provincial assembly, and said that the qualification criterion of candidates contesting general elections must be in accordance with 1973 constitution.

He also demanded that people be allowed to decide who should contest for the slot of prime minister for a third term. He called for preparation of computerized voters lists and multiple identification to prove identity of voters.

Delimitation of electoral constituencies should be compact and the constituencies should have uniform vote strength, he added.—PPI